


Through The Ages

by hesperia



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Robert's Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-06
Updated: 2012-04-06
Packaged: 2017-11-03 04:25:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hesperia/pseuds/hesperia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at Robert and Ned's friendship through the ages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through The Ages

"We're going to get caught," Ned hissed, pulling hard on the reins of his horse to come to a stop next to Robert. 

Robert laughed, loud and full before taking off. "Where's your sense of adventure?" he called, leaving Ned nothing more to do then chase after him. 

Even at night, Gulltown was bustling with people, and Ned soon realized, that two young boys from the Vale would be hardly of note. They left their horses tied to a copse of trees near the edge of the city and made their way past the gates. 

The city always smelled, like cooked food and stale beer, like seawater and rotting fish. "The rotting fish is probably the whores," Robert said, he always laughed hardest at his own jokes, and Ned would give him a chuckle, a smile, it was the kind of thing you did for a friend. When they neared the whorehouse, Robert ducked into an alleyway, and Ned followed with a raised eyebrow. Robert stopped then and turned to Ned, his hands on his hips. He reminded Ned of Old Nan in one of her many stand offs with Lyanna. "Do you trust me?" 

"Aye, you know I do." Ned said, almost offended that Robert would even question such a thing. They had known each other since they were eight years old, and now at 16, had known each other for exactly half their lives. 

"Then stop following me with one foot in and one foot out. We're here for fun, Ned. You do remember what that is, yeah?" 

Ned nodded, quelling the need to roll his eyes at Robert's dramatics. "Good, now keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. It'll be worth it, I promise." 

Ned highly doubted that whatever Robert was going to show him in a whorehouse would be worth the wrath they might receive when Lord Jon had realized they had slipped out of the Eyrie, and taken two of his horses with them.

Halfway down the alley there was a door, and Robert knocked on it three times, and then twice. A pattern of sorts, Ned thought, and he was right, because the door opened and a sweet faced girl with long blond hair opened the door with a smile. She held out her hand, and Robert dropped two silver pieces into her palm. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked at Robert, expectantly. 

"Damn Mag, you drive a hard bargain," Robert said, before slipping his hand into her hair and pulling her towards him, his mouth mashing against hers in a wet kiss. The girl laughed, high and soft, and she opened the door all the way. Robert went in first, and Ned followed, cautiously. Mag smiled at him as she closed the door behind them, and pushed past them both to lead the way. 

The brothel smelled of Lyseni incense, and a headier, stronger scent that Ned couldn't place but could guess well enough what it was. As they made their way through the place, women stood in doorways of bedrooms, in all states of dress. Some would reach out and press a warm hand on Ned's cheek, or curl her small hands over his arm. But Robert would grabbed his shoulder and pull him away, pull him in the direction of wherever they were headed. 

"Not tonight ladies," Robert would say, with a wink, and the women would disappear into the hazy dark just as quickly as they had appeared. 

"Where are we going?" Ned asked, irritatedly. He was half swollen in his braies already, despite himself, and his patience was few and far between because of it. 

"We're almost there," Mag said, as she led them down a steep set of wooden stairs. "And the show is about to begin..." 

She opened the door to a room that had been decorated with yards of thick red velvet. There were thick plush chairs littered in the room, facing a wooden platform at the end of the room, which had been raised slightly from the floor and was covered in furs. On the platform lay three women, naked as their very first name day. 

Ned looked over at Robert, and Robert laughed, as he always did, and pushed Ned down into a chair. "You'll thank me for this."

* * *

"Do you think your father would let me marry her?" Robert asked, as they trailed behind Lord Rickard and Brandon. They were on their second day of the hunt, and Lyanna had been the only thing Robert wanted to talk about. It was enough to turn a man mad with the monotony of the coversation. 

"I suppose he might..." Ned said, the second time that day. "But not yet, she's only 13."

"Do you know if she's flowered yet?" 

Ned looked at his friend sharply and scowled. "Enough already!" 

Robert laughed, and poked Ned in the thigh with the blunt end of his spear. "Touchy, touchy. You're just mad I don't have any sisters for you. I could give you Renly if you wanted, I'm sure he wouldn't mind wearing a dress." 

"A kind offer to be sure..." Ned said, with dark eyes. 

"Ahh, Ned, ye cannot be too angry with me. I cannot help it if you're sister is the sweetest thing I have ever laid my eyes on. She is the thing I think of going to sleep at night, and the thing that causes me to rise in the morning." He winked at Ned, and took off when he saw the glint of annoyance in Ned's eyes. Ned did not bother to chase after him, as he saw Robert pull up beside Lord Rickard. 

He knew his lord father would agree to their betrothal, it would be a good match for Lyanna, to be Lady of Storm's End. And she was strong enough to take on Robert, fiesty enough to keep him in line. And then they would be brothers truly, though Robert was a like a brother to him now just as much as Brandon or Benjen were. 

When he finally caught up with the rest of the group, Robert was smiling ear to ear, and Ned knew that it was already done. Robert wasted no time in things he felt certain of, and there was no denying, Ned was certain of Robert's love for Lyanna.

 

* * *

"I should be marrying your sister," Robert said, looking at Ned over his cup of wine. "What's the good of a throne if you can't even have the queen you want at your side." 

Ned refilled his own cup, and then Robert's. "You'd best keep those opinions to yourself, your grace. You might be king, but you'll need the Lannister gold to stay that way." 

Robert barked a laugh, bitter and jaded, and downed the wine Ned had poured in one long gulp. "I suppose you're right. She's pretty enough to be sure, though I heard she's got a set of lion's teeth in her cunt." 

"I heard that too, your grace."

"Oh enough of that your grace horseshit, Ned. You're making me mad, and we all know how well it turned out for the last mad king." 

Ned was silent, sipping his wine slowly. He thought of his own wife, a stranger to him really, but there was a babe to be born any day now, and he'd not stay longer than he had to in the South. 

"You know I loved her, don't you, Ned?" Robert asked, his voice softer now, secret. "I would give it up, all of it. Just to see her again. Feel her hair in my hands, smell the scent of her when she'd walk past."

They sat together in Robert's chambers, drinking silently, both wishing for simpler times, for families taken, and loves lost.


End file.
